Overcoming Writing Apathy

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Wayne Mack

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I've hit a point, for several months, where I have no desire to sit down and write. It isn't really writer's block as I know how I want the story to progress. I just don't have the urge to write. Any ideas on how to move past this stage?
 
Is it a particularly sticky point in the story? I got held up for weeks once by needing to write a paragraph at the start of a chapter that summarised a few hours of travel through a not very interesting landscape. Every time I approached it was like death, because I couldn't think of a way of making it anything other than boring. Solution: for one paragraph, who cares if it's boring?

Is it that you've planned it too thoroughly and feel the story has lost its capacity to surprise you? Solution: throw something new into the mix. Someone with fake cat ears and a sword.

Are you rebelling against some kind of pressure you're putting on yourself? Solution: uh, I'm still working on that.

I think any solution will need more detail about the circumstances. Sometimes it just takes time.
 
I thing that might be normal. Might be worth setting a very small target -eg. one to three lines a day, but every day. The routine of sitting down and scribbling/ typing should pay off sooner or later (if it was the case that you simply weren't bothered then ya wouldn't be posting here, so it doesn't read like you are not fit to finish the story).
Best of luck, am full sure you'll turn it around.
 
I've been struggling for the last few months to progress a story that I've been having a wonderful time writing. I have no idea what the problem has been, but every time I've sat down to write, the best I have managed is a sentence or two, and most of the time I have done something else rather than sit down to write.
About two weeks ago, I did the "sit down to write" with the same sense of despondency that nothing would come of it, finished the chapter that was going nowhere, did the next three, and now the problem appears to have gone away.
I've got no magic fix to offer, just keeping on plugging away at it and wait for the gloom to lift. Even if that means just thinking about what you would write if you could bring yourself to sit down and put fingers to keyboard.
 
Wayne Mack said:
I've hit a point, for several months, where I have no desire to sit down and write. It isn't really writer's block as I know how I want the story to progress. I just don't have the urge to write. Any ideas on how to move past this stage?
Click to expand...
Are you in the Northern hemisphere? Could you be suffering from SAD? Do you have a SAD lamp? I am always hit by the worst blues when the days get this short, and it of course bleeds over into my writing.
 
Cue 'the Robert Sheckley Story'.

Sheckley, I read somewhere, was a professional. He wrote 5k words a day. every day. One time he hit a block. He had nothing. So he sat at his typwriter and just started typing his name out over and over again. Hundreds and hundreds of times, "After a while," he said, "it got so boring I wrote a story instead."

I just do that. I write, doodle, draw anything and keep on doing it till somewhere along the line something suddenly doesn't look like sh*t and I'm back in the saddle
 
This happens to me periodically, so I stop writing completely and forget about it until the urge returns and forces me back to the keyboard. Taking that pressure off means I'm usually out of action for a few weeks, but I always feel better for the break. I also enjoy a bit more reading than normal!
 
I'm like @Steve Harrison too. And I might catch up on some much-needed reading or watch documentaries or a show not related to the genre that I am writing in for a few days, just for a break and different story ideas to fill my thoughts with.

If your thoughts are preoccupied with something else that is weighing heavily on you, go and tend to it and give it the attention it needs.

You'll be fine. If nothing else, go to a boxing club or gym and get it. Works for me at times.;)
 
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HareBrain said:
Why does this need fixing?
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No one has tried to answer this, so I'll expand it a bit in case my point was missed.

The OP says he no longer wants to write. If I said "I used to enjoy chocolate, but now I just don't fancy it", no one would come along and suggest techniques to get my taste for it back; everyone would just say "Fair enough", or in some cases "Lucky you". Why is this different?

The assumption is that the OP, having written before, *should* still want to write. But unless he makes money at it, or stands a good chance at doing so, why should he? I think there's this tendency for writers to get invested in an identity as a writer. The idea of abandoning it causes an almost existential crisis. But it shouldn't.

When I did my MA, there was a fair bit in the first session about attaching to myself the identity of "writer", which is something I endeavoured to do. Much as I now love writing, I've come to wonder since if anything else since has done me so much psychological harm as that attachment to that supposed identity, because of the angst it caused me when I wasn't into it.

I think the OP, and anyone else in the same position, would be best off just letting go and waiting for the desire to come back by itself, which it almost certainly will.
 
@Danny McG
Yeah, I got half way through and just lost interest.

On another note: After my first two novels generated little if any interest out in the field I had a stint of that apathy.
The best thing is to move on to other things for a while--that's other writing projects.
Keep at it in some form and maybe the interest in that old project will hit you down the road--when you least expect it.
Might want to get insurance: in case it hits you too hard.
 
HareBrain said:
Something else I've thought of.


Why does this need fixing?
Click to expand...
This is a very good question and one I've been pondering since it was posted. I'm not sure I have a good answer, the best I can come up with is, I want to want to write again. I miss getting up in the morning and losing a couple of hours putting an imagined scene on the page.

I had kept up a fairly consistent pace of writing form a little over three years and then towards the start of fall this year, I just stopped. I did put in a few one day bursts now and then, but they were followed by long periods of doing anything except sitting down and writing.

That was a very thought provoking question and I would encourage everyone to consider it within their own circumstances. I'll continue to try to work through my feelings and I still hope to get back to consistently writing in the future.
 
I think what I'll do going forward is to forget about for the next couple of days (US Thanksgiving holiday is 11/23) and then try just sitting down and writing something every day. I don't think I'm depressed and I don't have any other issues distracting me. I've been a little hesitant in taking that approach because I believe writing should be fun and forcing myself to write feels like turning a hobby into a job. However, I don't feel like just waiting it out is working, so it's either give up completely or actively force the situation.

Thanks for all the thoughts on the matter.
 
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HareBrain said:
Something else I've thought of.


Why does this need fixing?
Click to expand...

I think this is crucial.

It might be temporary, it might be permanent; the question I’d ask myself (if in your shoes) now is do I want to write. In general.

Because, if you’ve lost your mojo for it but deep down still want to write, there may be a mental health or neurodivergent factor.

I’d you’ve lost interest in writing then there’s nothing to fix really, is there?
 
Wayne Mack said:
I think what I'll do going forward is to forget about for the next couple of days (US Thanksgiving holiday is 11/23) and then try just sitting down and writing something every day.
Click to expand...
Or even wait through the Holiday season and try again in January? Maybe after Thanksgiving go through and read some of your own works/WIP just to get a feel for your own writings. A kind of self-reflection/self-critiquing if you will. Something might surface and re-spark your drive to write again.
Just a thought.
 
HareBrain said:
The OP says he no longer wants to write. If I said "I used to enjoy chocolate, but now I just don't fancy it", no one would come along and suggest techniques to get my taste for it back; everyone would just say "Fair enough", or in some cases "Lucky you". Why is this different?
Click to expand...
Reminds me of
 
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